Which Country Has The Best Burger?

The hamburger. One of the first American ones looked like this. Since then, it's undergone many changes. Different buns. Different meats. Different toppings. In the modern day, there are thousands of ways to cook hamburgers. In America alone. But what does the world have to offer when it comes to hamburgers? That's what we're going to find out today. The hamburger, since its very inception, has spread far and wide, with all countries around the globe coming up with their own unique style. But these styles, sometimes kept secret, are tucked away in their corners of the globe. Until today. You, the audience, have voted for the top 12 global hamburgers, and today they are all facing off in a tournament to see which country makes the best burger. Now while the top 4 burgers are going to get a bye, the remaining 8 are going to fight it off in the tournament to advance. Now we begin our first matchup with the Philippines versus Japan. Japan with the double wagyu burger from Gee's Burger. You all voted for it, and it may be the beefiest burger in this entire video. Now the most voted for version from Gee's starts with a beautiful milk bun toasted in wagyu fat, topped with two cheesed wagyu patties, onion jam, also cooked in wagyu fat, and topped with their famous wagyu mayo. But of course it gets a final painting of wagyu fat on the bun. God, this is like wagyu on wagyu, it might be a little too much. It's decadence, if anything. Philippines are coming in strong with the chori burger, and we have our strong Filipino chef right here to tell us how it's made. A classic Filipino pandesal bun is grilled and slathered on top and bottom with banana ketchup mixed with mayo. Next comes your chori, or chorizo, which is a grilled, spicy, sweet pork longganisa patty. God, we love pork. And finally, your achara, pickled green papaya. Now time to taste test, and joining us today will be longtime friend of the channel, Chef Christian and Olivia Tiedemann, who recently helped us on the best barbecue in America. We have two competitors that I love. Which one should we start with? Honestly, I think with Japan. That's good as f**k. That's really good as f**k. Holy s**t. The immediate word that comes to mind is balance. When I saw the cheddar, I was a little concerned, because I really don't love normal cheddar on a burger. But this works. I'm really surprised that this is as good as it is, considering there's not that many elements going on here. There's a sauce, there's burger, there's cheese we don't like, and there's onions, and it tastes really, really good. This is kind of like what I want in a nice burger. This is like an upgraded smash burger to me, in terms of texture, flavor. We have another burger to try. Ooh. That's a nice switch up. There's definitely more flavor. Immediately, way more balanced. Flavor's amazing. It's got that perfect balance of salty, sweet, a little bit of acidity, and a lot of burgers don't have that. I also like the grill taste. It's charred. A great aspect of a burger is charbroiled. I really like the slaw on top. I think that's a nice addition to this. The pork is really good. It's seasoned really nicely. There's a lot of flavor in there, and the bread doesn't bother me at all. When you pick up that bun, it was intimidating. It was like, oh, it feels dry, but it genuinely hugged the meat. Let's vote. The country that receives the majority of votes between the three of us will move on to the next round. This is like being a kid again and playing games. I love this. One, two, three. Whoa. Unanimous winner for the Philippines. Moving on to the next round. Before we move on, we have a huge announcement. We have been nominated for a Webby, finally, but we need your vote in order to win. The link is in the description. Please go click it. Please go vote. Now, the link should take you to the food and drink category, and you just vote for me. But if you're lost, here's how you find me. First, you hit the link in the description. When you're there, hit categories. Click creators. Scroll down until you find food and drink. Click that and vote for me, please. Now, back to our second matchup. Number five, Serbia versus number 12, Denmark. First up, number five, Serbia with Bleskavica, which you, the voters, overwhelmingly attributed to specifically Serbia. But this is famous in many Balkan countries, which means there's a lot of variations. Your vote specifically called for the beef and lamb patty on Ljubljana, topped with two sauces, ajvar and kajmak. We started our toasted Ljubljana, sort of a roll meets pita. The bottom bun gets ajvar, a red pepper eggplant spread, and the top bun gets kajmak, a soft cheese spread. Finally, your charcoal grilled mixed meat patty goes down, topped with raw onion and crown your king. You know, it looks simple, but it could be a strong competitor. Number 12, Denmark, both sandwich. This brown gravy covered behemoth is a bit messy, and it starts by adding pickled diced beets to the bottom toasted bun on a nice thick burger patty that has been dunked in gravy. Topped with Dijon mustard, ketchup, a lemony remoulade, raw onion, sweet pickles, and grilled onion. Add your top bun and quite literally drown it in gravy. Finally, top it all with a third style of onion, crispy fried onions, and let's taste. It's the most unique texture burger I've had. That was like a nice relief as well. Moving on. The most messy one. You know what it reminds me of? Almost like a gravy torta ahogada. It's really interesting. Texture's fine in all of it, but just the flavors didn't really go well together. There's way too much going on here. I actually really like this generally, but as a hamburger, I'm not sure yet. Let's vote. One, two, three! Another unanimous! What I will say is, I think that there's a world where this Danish burger is unbelievable, and I bet there are places that probably does this really well. But this one, the traditional OG version, I don't think it makes the cut. Serbia moves on to face number four, Brazil, in the next round. But first we have number six, Spain, versus number 11, Cuba. First up, Spain, the singular burger from a restaurant called 100 Burgers, which is in both Valencia and Madrid. It's been named supposedly the number one burger in the world by Burger Dudes, international burger critics. This is all about big flavors and big textures. A toasted demi-brioche bun, which has a little bit less butter and sugar than normal. Spread with creamy camembert cheese in the bottom. Top with a 60-day dry-aged beef patty, some cheddar cheese, and finally, super crispy bacon, caramelized onions, and a sweet barbecue sauce on top. I don't know what about these flavors are exactly Spanish, but there you go. Now the competitor to that is the Cuban frita. First invented by supposedly Cuban street vendors, while it no longer exists exactly in the Cuban birthplace. Thankfully, it lives on in Miami's Little Havana, at places like El Rey de la Fritas. It's served on an airy Cuban bun after the all-beef patty. Other spots sometimes mix beef and pork, and it's been seasoned with a secret mix of herbs and spices smashed flat and doused in a special sweet, spicy tomato frita sauce. From there, it gets topped with raw onion, a heaping pile of very thin, crispy shoestring potatoes, and optionally, a little bit of ketchup. What's not to like? Let's taste. Fried potatoes are nice on it. It's got a little bit of crunch there. The potatoes are a cool crunch. The meat tastes good, but I'm hating the raw onions here. They're like so abrasive. The raw onions don't do anything for it, unless there was a sauce to kind of play with the onions. Spain. Wow. This is like very nicely cooked. Meat is really, really good. It's so juicy. Very flavorful. The onions are nice. You've got like the caramelized onions and the barbecue sauce mixed together to make this sort of like smoky, sweet, roasted flavor that I like, and honestly, I don't like the cheese that's on it. It doesn't work well with this burger. It needs a saltier cheese to me. That cheese is like a texture and not a flavor at all. But the bacon does help make up for that. It's really good, but it's not like blowing me away. I'm a huge fan of the bacon western cheeseburgers out there, and this is a fancier version of that. It's good. It's really good burger. It's voting time. One, two, three. Unanimous for Spain. Bang. This is going to be very interesting once we get to the round where it's all the top contenders put together. Moving on. Spain moves on to face number three, Malaysia, in the next round, but now we move on to our final first round battle, India versus Dominican Republic. So India's coming in with vada pav. It's a contentious one. It's well, vegetarian. But it made a surprisingly deep run in our best sandwich in the world video, and can it surprise again? Could we have a vegetarian hamburger be our best burger in the world? Anything is possible on this. It starts with a sweet, lightly toasted soft dinner roll, spread with tamarind chutney on the bottom, cilantro chutney on the top, add your battered and fried aromatic mashed potato ball. Season generously with spicy garlic chutney and a fried green chili on top. If any vegetarian burger has a possibility to win this, I believe vada pav could be the sleeper. Now competing against that is the Dominican Republic's Chimmy. I've had this before where we ate around the world in 24 hours, and let me tell you something. The Chimmy I had at Chimitos might have been the greatest late night sandwich I've ever had. Joe, I'm going to take my pants off. Thank you for warning me. And we're following the very recipe from the Chimitos owner in New York. Thanks to him. Shout out to Max. It starts with a toasted pan de agua, crispy on the outside, super light and airy on the inside. It's then topped with a heavily seasoned beef pork patty, fresh juicy tomato, fresh thinly sliced white onion, piled very high with thinly sliced cabbage, and finished with a generous drizzle of mayonnaise, ketchup, and just a nice line of yellow mustard. For our 10th ranked burger, this could be a heavy hitter. I'm going to start with the Indian vada pav. Oh yeah. The vada pav is delicious. It's a weird texture because it's mashed potato, but they added a little crunch and the spiciness, just the pepper comes in. The sauce underneath is like nice and tangy. You have your tart chutney at the bottom. Really lovely. I like that the bread gives us a little pillow. It's spicy. It's sweet. It's fragrant. I said this before. I'll say it again. I'm shocked that this is vegetarian because it's delicious. That said, the Dominican rub. Like. Oh. That bread. The meat. There's a lot of flavor in this. Like, actually, like a shocking amount. You've got this salty, beefy, juicy meat, and what I like is all that richness is immediately cut by the sweetness from the ketchup. Is this the first mustard moment we've seen? I was going to say, I was going to talk about the mustard because usually sometimes like a water burger is like too much mustard, but the tomato, the seasoned meat, the crunchy bun. It's an unexpected pleasure. And I'm loving that it's kind of simple with just this shredded like cabbage and tomato. It's like nice freshness there. I like this bread. It's really good. One, two, three. Another unanimous win. The seasoned beef is what stands out the most. The Dominican Republic moves on to face Australia in the next round, but now we move on to our first quarterfinal battle, America versus the Philippines. Overwhelmingly, America voted for the smash burger. For our smash burger, we're using the perfect burger recipe I created with George Motes, the burger scholar of the world and author of the Great American Burger Book. You can find this recipe in the description. First, you're going to spread some of my burger sauce on both sides. It's a very simple ketchup mayo mustard sauce. Top with simple dill pickle slices, your two burger patties, which have been smashed with thinly sliced white onion and fried. Little salt and pepper, top with American cheese and crown your king. It's a simple burger. Can it withstand the blows from every one of these remaining burgers? This is the epitome of the modern burger. When you think of a hamburger, I think of this burger. I don't know about you guys. And I would argue that's my favorite burger, but we're doing a competition for a reason, and that's to find possibly a new one. Damn, that's very, very juicy. I really like the sesame seeds on here, too. When I eat this, everything about a burger is flooding my mind. The crispy maillard, the salty, rich beef, the American cheese melting with all the flavors and almost becoming part cheese, part sauce, and then the acidic, classic dill pickle flavor kind of juicy in there, giving a little extra crunch. Pickles are probably my favorite thing ever. You can't not have a pickle on a burger. One of the reasons Philippine won was because it had a crunch. That said, the Tory burger is definitely putting on some sort of a fight for me, because when I bite that, totally different experience, and I get that refreshing acidity that this doesn't have. So it is making me stop in my tracks and go, well, wait a minute. Is this a better burger than what the classic burger is? Let's vote. One, two, three. Wow. Listen, I will say this. The Philippines is a constant winner for this channel, and I'm honestly surprised. I thought that they were going to really take the dub on this, but what I will say is I don't know that necessarily one is absolutely better than the other. It's just that this one makes me feel more like I'm eating a burger, and this is still really delicious, but it doesn't feel like the best burger to me. Out of all the burgers I've ever had, this is the most different burger experience I've had in a while. I will be revisiting this, and if you haven't had it, you should absolutely try it and add it to your rotation. That said, moving on. And America takes our first semifinal spot. Now we move on to the quarterfinal battle, Brazil versus Serbia. Brazil. Now I'm going to butcher this pronunciation, but here we go. It's Xixitudo. It essentially translates from Portuguese to the cheese everything burger. Now we follow Guga's recipe. We start by saucing the bun with a mixture of mayo, mustard, and sriracha ketchup. He then adds lettuce, two flame grilled burger patties with provolone and canned corn, seared ham, fresh tomato, fried bacon, shoestring potatoes, a butterfly cook hot dog or sausage, a fried egg, and finally a top bun. Good God. Street vendors supposedly put everything they have on this. That should make it better, right? I'm going to attempt to cut this on camera. It's in half now. Oh, you know, just take it. I tried. I mean, it's good. It's kind of the same problem as the burger from Denmark. Texturally, it all kind of just immediately melds together. You're like, I don't know what's what. It's kind of clashing textures. And flavor-wise, I'm tasting so much that I'm almost tasting nothing. Nothing is bad in here. It's just way too many things. It's like four different dishes in one. Cheese is a little funky. I like funky cheese, but that one is unpleasant. It fell apart and it became a whole dish. I have a salad over here, my carbs over here, and a f*** ton of protein. So what does this mean for the Balkan burger? I'm ready to vote. Three, two, one. Wow, another unanimous win for Serbia. An unexpected lead right now, but that doesn't mean it can't be top, but we have much more to go. Moving on. Serbia now moves on to face America in the semi-finals. Now for our next quarterfinal battle, it's Malaysia versus Spain. Malaysia is coming in with the Romle Burger Akuala Lumpur Street Food Legend. It starts with a Romle frozen beef patty, and chicken patties are common as well, cooked in a lot of margarine. It gets wrapped in a nice, luscious scrambled egg. It gets cheese, seasoned, drizzled with a sweet, spicy chili sauce, and Kewpie mayo. It's then doused with Maggi and Worcestershire sauce. Finally, wrap the egg around, all of that, placed in a burger bun that is also toasted in margarine and topped with more chili sauce and Kewpie. And I'm gonna be honest, I think we might have a sleeper on our hands. But can it defeat a highly-seated burger from Spain? Let's taste. Olivia does not like mayo. This is gonna be a tough one for her. Oh, not even bad. I actually love that. This is like a completely different experience beyond anything I could have ever expected. I'm not tasting anything that I tasted in any of the other burgers, but this follows the ethos of what a great burger is, which is beauty and simplicity, right? It's not overcomplicated. There's like a fragrance to it. The meat is juicy and delicious. The egg is so silky and soft. The meat is so good. This is like a sausage, egg, and cheese. This is an ideal breakfast burger. Yes, this might be the best breakfast burger of my life. I know what I'm voting for. That's easy. Three, two, one. Wow. What do we got? You guys really disappointed me on this one. Spain wins. Nice. Suck it, Josh. Wow. Here's my thought. To me, this experience outdoes this experience. It's more unique. It's more fun. To me, a classic hamburger is better than that. I think the meat in there is what is really doing it for me, that dry-aged meat. There's super unique flavors in the Malaysian burger and very familiar flavors in the Spanish burger, but I think the quality of the meat here was great. The bacon was cooked perfectly, and I think this was a very balanced burger. It might have needed a pickle or so, but I would have this again, but I can crush a bunch of those. Totally agree. We play fair game here. Shockingly, Spain moves on to the semi-final. We're down to the battle for our final spot in the semis. Australia calls this Burger with a Law. Is this wrong? Is it right? Only one man can decide. Our favorite chef who lives in Australia, Andy Herndon. All right. Where do I start? A beef patty, cheese, bacon, a fried egg, grilled pineapple ring from a can, sliced onions, tomato, sliced beetroot from a can, lettuce, barbecue or tomato sauce, and a white sesame seed bun. Wild. Thanks, Andy. God damn, you're cute. I love you. All right. I'm going in. This is not bad. All in all, I actually like this a lot better than the Brazilian burger. I agree with that. It's not a handheld burger. It started off tasting like a burger, and then I think I just had a big chunk of beet, and it was off beet. Yeah, the beet's not fun. Everything else is good. It's just too much of it. The pineapple's interesting. There's a lot of things going on here. Even if you just sliced all this thinner or found a different way to put all these elements together, I'm sure it would be really fun. And there's nothing necessarily inherently wrong with this. I will say there's a lot of elements to it, but does that mean that it ruins it? I don't know. But can the Dominican Republic stand up against Australia? Let's vote. Three, two, one. Yeah, I mean, come on. I forgot how good that meat was. And it's super simple. You have meat, tomato, cabbage, sauce. It is a perfect example of beauty and simplicity, and it is very clear to me that just because you add more things to a burger doesn't mean it's going to get better. Moving on. And the Dominican Republic moves on to the semifinals to face Spain. Now it's time for our first semifinal matchup, America versus Serbia. The winner here is going to get the ticket to the finals. We have the classic American-style hamburger against something brand new to all of us, the Balkan burger. They're both really delicious, and I do think that they both qualify to be at this level. The question is, can the Balkan burger take the lead here? Only one way to find out, so I'm just going to go in for a bite of each just to revitalize my memory. I mean, look at that, dude. Okay, Balkan. That is a good burger, though. Both very similar. Both very different. Fatty, rich, sort of fall apart. A little more cheesy. A little bit firmer. More meatloafy, spicy. This is a valiant contender. It's so fun. It's something so different. I've really enjoyed this one a lot. There can only be one winner. Let's vote. Three, two, one. You're upside down. Woo-hoo! Listen, this is a really close mark. The fact that the Balkan burger made it this far speaks volumes for how incredible this burger is. Great work from Serbia, but our next semi-matchup, it's the Dominican Republic versus Spain. This is the last semifinal leading into the finals, and the winner here will go against the most iconic hamburger in the world, the American hamburger, and we have two completely different incredible hamburgers. Let's see who moves on. So we've reacquainted ourselves with a burger from Spain and with the burger from the Dominican Republic. This is a hard one. This one is so juicy. It's really succulent. Very much giving hamburger. The DR burger, on the other hand, is really simple. You wouldn't expect it to be as good as it is. It has a little bit more of a freshness going on. It's a really hard one. Different flavors. Both simple. Spain is the closest to the classic. The meat is outstanding, and the Dominican Republic is also flavorful. The bread's amazing on the Dominican Republic. I love the freshness of the cabbage. The difference between this burger and the American burger is not all that different. But the Dominican one, on the other hand, has so many elements to it, and yet it doesn't lose out on what makes a great burger. Nice flavored beef, simple toppings that add to it and don't take away from it, and a wonderful bun. And the flavor is just phenomenal for both. This is a really hard choice, guys. I feel like what we should be thinking is, who here do you think could beat the USA? That gave me my answer. I'm ready to vote. One, two, three! Oh! Whoa! The upset! The winner goes to Dominican, but I think it was just really juicy, and I just appreciated the dry-aged meat. I was thinking, because it is so classically like a hamburger, it couldn't really compete with the USA burger. But something a little bit different, shake things up, I think it has a better chance of winning. I ate these two hamburgers, and I thought to myself, which one would I want to return to again and again and again? And I jumped to the Dominican Republic one. I know every time I eat that, I'm gonna be happy. The Spanish one, on the other hand, is so rich and so unctuous, I really need to be in the mood for that kind of a hamburger. It's a gift that doesn't always deliver, whereas the Dominican Republic, the flavor is much more balanced, the texture is much more exciting. That said, let the showdown begin. And the Dominican Republic moves on to face America in the very last of the competition. Welcome to the finals. Now we find out which country truly has the best hamburger. This time, instead of writing on our whiteboards the name of the winner, we are instead going to give a number rating out of 10. 10 being the best, 1 being the worst, of how much we like that burger. Whichever one has the highest number collectively will be our winner. So let's begin. I think we start here. Really incredible, honestly. It might be one of the most underrated sandwiches I've ever eaten. So surprisingly good. So few ingredients happening here. In texture, it stands out tenfold. The bread, the cabbage. And the beef is so flavorful with what's in it, all the little veg and peppers. Almost like a chopped cheese. I was gonna say this is like the bodega sandwich of burgers. All right, whiteboards, please. I'm feeling a number in my soul. One, two, three. You went a little lower than I expected. It's up there, but I think it's the OG burger eater in me that's not giving it 100% its credit. That's a very fair point. From a purist perspective, this is so off course from being a burger. Overall, though, it's delicious. I mean, there's very few notes I have on it. That said, let's just cut the s*** and find our winner. Because we have one more burger before us. Dominican Republic is in a strong lead right now. Ready? Three, two, one. 26.7, just barely by a hair surpasses... Yeehaw, motherf***er! Listen, this is gonna look real biased. Well, this is our thing. This is all we have. Honestly, that's true. It is truly better. It is what the hamburger was always meant to be. If you're gonna do another rendition, the number one thing I could say that I learned from this is a great hamburger is done simply. It's not about adding a lot of ingredients. And the Dominican Republic came in with an unbelievable challenger, possibly the closest upset I've ever seen in hamburger history. Although we found our burger, there were so many surprising moments I wasn't expecting, and we found out about burgers from around the world that truly belong on the world's greatest burgers list. We found our winner, and it is America. Love you so much. Subscribe. Bye.